Blue Origin to SpaceX, NASA partners 7 space companies for commercial and govt needs
US space agency NASA is taking collaboration with private agencies to the next level to meet its growing commercial and government requirements and for that it has roped in and tied-up with as many as 7 companies. Among them are Jeff Bezos led Blue Origin and Elon Musk led SpaceX. The ultimate goal, as per NASA is to benefit human spaceflight and the US commercial low Earth orbit economy.
Notably, these Space Act Agreements are unfunded. Also, the second Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2 initiative (CCSC-2) is designed to advance commercial space-related efforts. This will be done by NASA sharing of technical expertise, assessments, technologies, and data in ways that will expend minimal government resources. However, it will foster development of capabilities to create a robust low Earth orbit economy. Indicating how that will happen is Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., who said, “The companies can leverage NASA's vast knowledge and experience, and the agency can be a customer for the capabilities included in the agreements in the future.”
The seven companies selected for the Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2 are:
Blue Origin, Kent, Washington
Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, Dulles, Virginia
Sierra Space Corporation, Broomfield, Colorado
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, Hawthorne, California
Special Aerospace Services, Boulder, Colorado
ThinkOrbital Inc., Lafayette, Colorado
Vast Space LLC, Long Beach, California
The tie-up is expected to boost both the public and private causes. “We've seen how these types of partnerships benefit both the private sector and NASA,” said McAlister.
There was a rigorous methodology adopted
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